Trust for London

Funding Guidelines
2016-17

Updated February 2016

Contents
1

About Trust for London

2 Introduction
4 Employment
6 Advice
8 Social Justice
10 Violence
11 Small Groups
12 Shortlisting criteria
14 How to apply
16 Non-priority areas
17 Complaints
17 Feedback

About
About Trust
Trust for
for London
London
Trust for London is one of the largest independent charitable foundations funding
work which tackles poverty and inequality in the capital.
We are particularly interested in work that develops new and imaginative ways of
addressing the root causes of Londons social problems, especially work which
has the potential to influence and change policy, practice and public attitudes.
We are willing to take risks by supporting unpopular causes and activities that
government is unlikely to fund. We also want to make sure that we are able to
respond to new issues and ideas and find creative ways of tackling deep-rooted
problems relating to poverty and inequality.
Annually we provide around 7 million in grants. At any one point we are
supporting some 400 voluntary and community organisations and other
instiutions. Established in 1891, we were formerly known as City Parochial
Foundation.
These funding guidelines provide information about us, what we will and will not
fund, and how you can apply to us.

Introduction
There are many ways poverty and inequality can be addressed. Unfortunately we
do not have sufficient resources to support all needs. In developing our priorities,
we have reviewed what others are doing, consulted people working in this field
and considered where we can have the greatest impact. These funding priorities
build on our previous work.
Our focus is on four areas: Employment, Advice, Social Justice and Violence. We
also have a specific programme for small groups. Each of the funding priorities
are explained in detail on pages 4 to 11.

How to apply
Please read these funding guidelines in full before filling in our on-line funding
application form. Details of how you can apply are on pages 14 to 15. Our
website www.trustforlondon.org.uk includes a full list of recent grants we have
made. If you want to keep up to date with our work, please sign up for our
e-bulletin details are on our website.

Non-priority areas
You may find it useful at this stage to look at the areas of work we will not support
or are unlikely to support on page 16.

Funding available
There is no minimum or maximum size of grant and the amount you request
should be the amount you need. However, the average grant (not including
funding we award under our small groups priority) is around 75,000 in total,
although a number of grants will be for a lesser amount, while some will be for
more.
The amounts may be spread over one, two or three years. For example, if you are
awarded a grant of 75,000, this could be 25,000 over three years, or 40,000
in the first year and 35,000 in the second.
We will not normally make grants that exceed 125,000. You may therefore
need to apply to other funders to fund your proposed work jointly with us and
we encourage you to do this, as we cannot always provide the total costs you
require.

2 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

Grants made under our small groups priority will not exceed 50,000 in total, with
an average grant being 25,000 in total, although a number of grants will be less
than this. You may apply over one, two or three years. We will not award more
than 20,000 in any one year.
We support long-term strategies for dealing with poverty and inequality. Therefore
organisations that have received funding may return for support for work which
is particularly effective and continues to meet our criteria and priorities. However,
you should not assume we will award further funding and should also apply to
other funders. If you wish to apply again for the same or different work, you should
contact your relevant officer at least eight months before your current funding
expires. Generally we do not provide more than one grant at a time.

Who and what we will fund

We fund organisations undertaking charitable activities. You do not need to be a
registered charity. We will support work which meets our priorities as outlined on
pages 4 to 11. This may be for a specific project or on-going costs. This includes
staff salaries and overheads. We encourage organisations to include a reasonable
amount of core costs to cover their overheads when they apply for funding. The
majority of our funding is for revenue costs, though we can also fund small capital
items.
The purpose of our funding is to benefit people who are living in poverty in
London. This includes work to increase their income as well as addressing other
issues that may affect them such as inequality, discrimination or violence. We will
fund work that benefits a large number of people living in poverty e.g. a campaign
to make housing more affordable in London; as well as specific issues affecting
smaller numbers e.g. work to prevent female genital mutilation.

Innovation/Exceptional need
We may occasionally fund work to tackle poverty and inequality which falls
outside our priorities. Organisations will need to demonstrate clearly how the
work is exceptional or how your organisation is developing genuinely innovative
approaches to address these issues; or that an exceptional need has arisen. You
will need to speak to us if you wish to apply under this heading. Generally we will
only make a few grants under this category each year.

Employment
Paid work is critical to tackling poverty. Whilst the clearest benefits are financial,
1
work is also important in improving peoples confidence, self-worth, health and
increasing independence. The Government through Job Centre Plus, the Work
Programme and other sources is providing considerable funding to support
people into employment and our resources are limited in comparison.
Our emphasis is therefore on activities which Government and mainstream
training and employment funders will not or are unlikely to support.
We also recognise that work is not always a solution to addressing poverty and
often employment services are moving people from workless poor to working
poor. Many jobs are low-paid and over one million Londoners live in low-income
households where at least one adult is working. These jobs are sometimes
insecure, unrewarding and fail to act as a stepping stone into a future career. We
are keen to address these issues.
Your project should be designed to achieve outcomes that will lead to one or
more of our outcomes:

Low-paid workers secure improvements in pay, conditions and rights.

Disadvantaged groups have improved access to apprenticeships, paid

internships and work placements.

Improvements to policies and practice in the employment field.

Decision makers and service providers have greater insight and knowledge on
employment-related issues.

4 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

Trust for Londons Open Programme

We will fund
Progression routes out of low-paid work. This could include advice, training
and support to help low-paid workers into better-paid, sustainable employment
which offers a career path, as well as work with employers.
Research on employment-related issues including that which provides greater
insights into what helps people secure and retain employment; enables career
progression for those in low paid work; and how more jobs can be created in
the capital.
Policy change and campaigning work on issues such as:

Improving access to apprenticeships, paid internships and work

placements.

Improving pay, conditions and rights for those on low incomes, including
promoting the London Living Wage and addressing exploitative
employment practices.

London-specific challenges such as the high cost of childcare and issues

relating to the labour market e.g. the shortage of quality part-time and
flexible jobs.

Promoting good employment practice amongst employers, including

changing attitudes.

Improving the capacity and skills of voluntary and community organisations

working on employment-related issues. This means we will fund organisations
to support other groups to improve their practice, share knowledge and
influence.

Advice
Access to rights, entitlements and justice is not always equal. Sometimes the
processes and systems are complex and difficult to understand, particularly for
those who are the poorest and most vulnerable in society. In these situations,
relevant and timely advice and legal representation is vital in upholding their rights
and ensuring there is fair treatment.
We will fund direct advice work and representation in areas which are particularly
underfunded and which we have previously supported. This work includes good
quality early advice for cases that merit support, preventing problems becoming
more serious, complex and costly. We are particularly interested in supporting
legal advice work which has the potential to have wider impact on the lives of
disadvantaged Londoners.
Organisations we support should have an understanding of what causes demand
for advice and should aim to address these causes, reducing waste and tackling
demand at source. They should also support and empower clients to resolve
problems and take more control over their lives. We are particularly interested in
innovative approaches to dealing with these issues.
Your project should be designed to achieve outcomes that will lead to one or
more of our outcomes
Migrants

are more able to secure their rights and entitlements.

Low-waged
Advice

workers are more able to secure their rights and entitlements.

agencies work more effectively to respond to need and demand.

Decision-makers
Advice-giving

improve their policies and/or practice.

agencies are better able to sustain their work.

6 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

Aims of the Programme

We will fund
Employment legal advice including casework and representation, which
protects workers rights and tackles issues of discrimination. We will fund
tribunal work and the enforcement of tribunal awards.
Immigration legal advice. This can be either immigration advice at a specialist
level (advocacy and representation); or advice work relating to a specialist
issue e.g. for those seeking asylum because they are being persecuted as a
result of their sexuality.
Policy and campaigning work to improve access to advice services.
Research to improve the evidence base on the value of advice.
Developing new models of funding advice work including charging for services
and securing funds from new sources.
Improving the capacity and skills of voluntary and community organisations
working in immigration and employment advice, particularly in relation to
the quality, accessibility and provision of advice. This means we will fund
organisations to support other groups to improve their practice, share
knowledge and influence. This could include partnerships between specialist
immigration and frontline refugee and migrant groups to improve the latters
capacity.

Social Justice
Civil society has a long tradition of advocating for social change, leading to
many significant improvements to peoples lives as a result of shifts in policy and
practice. However, we recognise there are limited funds for this work, especially
given the focus in recent years on increasing the voluntary sectors role in
delivering services. Whilst services are crucially important in alleviating poverty,
we believe it is also important to undertake campaigning work to influence
government, other policy-makers, the media and the general public, if we are to
tackle the root causes of poverty and inequality.
This includes work to influence public attitudes, establish an evidencebase, as well as enhancing skills in campaigning and lobbying to bring about
improvements.
We are keen that the work we fund includes the voice of Londons disadvantaged
and excluded communities wherever that is feasible; as well as collaborative
work to bring together grassroots groups with think-tanks and/or established
organisations, to campaign on any of the priority issues listed below.
Your project should be designed to achieve outcomes that will lead to one or
more of our outcomes:
Decision-makers
Service

improve their policies.

providers improve their practice.

Individuals

affected by poverty and inequality have a stronger voice (e.g. in

campaigns).

More

knowledge and solutions to poverty and inequality that could influence

others.

Raising

or maintaining the profile of an issue among relevant audiences.

Positive

shifts in public attitudes on social justice issues.

Increased

skills within the voluntary and community sector in campaigning and

lobbying.

8 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

We will fund
Policy change and campaigning work on the following issues:

Reducing poverty on issues such as tackling high living costs, welfare

benefits, pay, debt and pensions.

Reducing income and wealth inequality through work that improves

understanding of the gap between rich and poor, and practical work to
promote a better sharing of wealth such as Fairness Commissions.

Improving housing work to address systemic problems for low-income

Londoners in finding decent and affordable homes, including in the
private rented sector. This might include initiatives for a living rent.
We are also interested in piloting and sharing examples of good local
practice.

Promoting environmental justice on issues such as the built environment

and pollution in poor areas (including air quality) and the impact climate
change could have on Londons poorest communities.

Promoting equality and civil rights specifically where people are

experiencing multiple discrimination and disadvantage due to their
race, gender, disability, class, sexuality, faith or age in addition to their
low income. We are also interested in work related to refugees, asylum
seekers and migrants, including those who are undocumented.

Improving the capacity and skills of voluntary and community organisations

that are undertaking campaigning work. This includes their advocacy,
research and evaluation skills and work on communicating their messages
more effectively. This means we will fund organisations to support other groups
to improve their practice, share knowledge and influence.
Projects to build the capacity of service delivery organisations to use their
evidence to campaign for policy change.
Research which provides greater insights into poverty and inequality issues,
with a specific emphasis on identifying and modelling solutions.
9

Violence
Whilst people from all social classes can be affected by violence, our focus is on
supporting those who have limited financial resources. This can often mean that
they continue to live in violent situations or take longer to find appropriate help.
This work builds on our recent experience of funding a number of initiatives
including work with young people to address knife crime and preventing racist
violence; piloting new models of providing specialist advocacy support to victims/
survivors of domestic violence; and work on specific harmful practices which are
sometimes linked to culture or tradition. We recognise the need to fund work that
highlights good practice, provides specialist support as well as prevention work.
Your project should be designed to achieve outcomes that will lead to one or more
of our outcomes:

Victims/survivors of abuse/hate crimes are better supported to feel safe.

Decision-makers improve their policies towards victims/survivors of abuse/hate

crimes.

We will fund
Disability hate crime prevention work - projects supporting victims/survivors of
disability hate crime, in particular work that demonstrates new or effective ways
of increasing third party reporting.
Harmful practices prevention work and support - to victims of harmful practices
such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour based violence,
especially work targeting isolated communities.
Policy and campaigning work to improve the quality, accessibility and provision
of support to victims/survivors of gender-based violence, sexual violence and
victims of hate crime, including those targeted because of their race, sexuality,
disability or faith.

10 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

Small Groups
We have a long tradition of supporting small community groups as we believe
they are often well-placed to identify needs and find potential solutions. We are
therefore keen to fund small groups that have an emphasis on user involvement
and self-help.
We will fund activities that tackle poverty and inequality in London by empowering
people to advocate for themselves and which build stronger communities.
We define small groups as those that have an annual income of under 100,000.

We will fund
Speaking out and campaigning activities specifically work that empowers
groups of people to speak out for themselves and to campaign for positive
change. This could include improving access to services; increasing influence
on local decision-makers; or changing policies which affect the quality of
peoples lives. Where groups have undertaken research we are keen to
support them to put their findings into practice.
Advice and information work that supports disadvantaged communities to
access mainstream services and/or provides solutions to their immediate
needs. Our focus is on social welfare advice. This work should provide good
quality early advice, preventing problems becoming more serious, complex
and costly; and should support and empower clients to resolve problems and
take more control over their lives.
Practical activities to improve local neighbourhoods we will fund small-scale
activities which bring different groups of people together to enhance their
environment. This could include improving local green spaces; play areas; or
road safety.
We would encourage small groups to apply under this funding priority, although
you may also be eligible to apply under the other priorities if you have the skills,
experience and capacity to undertake the work we wish to fund.

11

Shortlisting criteria
We receive many more applications than we are able to fund. When assessing
applications we give additional weight to work that can demonstrate the following:

1 The potential to have significant influence including an impact on policy.

2 Develops new and/or imaginative ways of tackling an issue.
3 Finds it difficult to get support because the issue is perceived as being
challenging or risky.
4 Shares best practice and learning with others and the organisation has a clear
strategy for this.
5 Targets people and geographical areas affected by poverty and discrimination
this may include pockets of poverty within relatively well-off areas.
6 Strong user involvement at all levels.
7 Is accessible.
8 Skills, experience and ability within the organisation to undertake the proposed
work and the work is of a high quality.
You do not need to meet all of the criteria but we will shortlist organisations which
meet a number of them. All of the criteria are important but we are particularly
interested in applications that can also meet the first two points.

12 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

We primarily support small to medium-sized organisations, usually with an

expenditure of less than 2 million. Larger organisations can apply but they will
need to meet a significant number of the eight points listed above, particularly the
first two.
Most of the work we support is solely focussed on London. However, we are also
interested in work that has the potential to influence national policy and practice,
provided that a strong case is made as to how Londoners would benefit. In such
cases we would fund a proportion of this work.
We will assess your application against our funding priorities and shortlisting
criteria. At the same time we will look at what other applications have been
received and what we have funded recently. Applications for types of work, in
geographical areas, or particular communities/beneficiaries, where we have
already provided significant funds will be a lower priority. Please look at our
website for details of recent grants we have made.
It is also worth noting that we are keen that groups do not become dependent
on us for financial support. We are therefore unlikely to be an organisations sole
funder or provide the majority of its overall running costs.
We receive a large number of applications. Many organisations will meet our
priorities and we will not be able to fund all of them. Unfortunately, we have
to make difficult choices and will therefore have to reject a number of good
applications. Just because you are not shortlisted does not mean that we do not
think you are doing good and valuable work.

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How to apply
1. Read the funding guidelines
Please read these funding guidelines carefully to check whether your proposed
work fits our priorities. Please check on our website to see if you are reading the
latest version of our guidelines.

2. Any questions?
If, after reading these funding guidelines, you are in doubt as to whether your
work fits then please telephone us so that we can discuss it. We welcome such
telephone calls as it can save you and us time and resources.

3. Complete our on-line application form

To apply to us you need to complete our on-line application form. The form
contains contextual help on a number of questions which will help you to
complete it. You can also download a document containing all of the questions in
the application form. You do not need to complete the form in one sitting, as you
can save and close it and return to it at a later stage. If you have any problems
please contact us.
It is important to note we only accept applications via our on-line process,
which is also available in an accessible form. We do not accept applications
in any other format. You will receive an automatic acknowledgement once you
have submitted your on-line application form.

4. Closing dates
We have three closing dates for applications. They are:
4 February by 1pm for the June Grants Committee.
28 May by 1pm for the October Grants Committee.
8 October by 1pm for the February Grants Committee.
Applications received after the deadline will not be considered until the next
closing date. If the closing date falls on the weekend or a bank holiday, the closing
date will be extended to the next working day. Please check our website for the
actual closing date.

5. Shortlisting
Once a closing date has passed, we will read and consider all the applications we
have received. On some occasions we may contact you for further clarification
regarding your proposed work.
14 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

We aim to contact you within six weeks of the relevant closing date to let you
know whether you have been rejected or shortlisted. Please avoid contacting us
during this period to find out about your application as this takes up our time and
resources.
If you are unsuccessful we will give you feedback. However, please understand
our funding decisions are final.

6. Visits
All shortlisted organisations will be visited by one of our grants staff. On some
occasions an additional member of staff or one of our trustees will also attend.
This will normally be at the place where you deliver your activities, but on occasion
we may ask you to come to our offices. We normally ask to meet with the
main person who will be involved in the proposed work, the co-ordinator/chief
executive of your organisation and a relevant trustee.
At the visit we will discuss your application in more detail and how we will
proceed. However, its important to remember that not all organisations we visit
will receive funding. We shortlist more applications than there is funding available
to support. This is to ensure that we are funding the best work put forward to us.

7. Submitting a final application

If we agree to take forward your proposal we will ask you to complete a
final application. This will be based on your original submission. This is your
opportunity to make any additional changes.

8. Grants Committee
If we agree to proceed to the next stage, your application will be presented to our
Grants Committee which will then make the final decision about your request. We
will ring you with the outcome soon after the meeting. This will be confirmed in
writing generally within ten working days of the meeting.
If you are successful in securing funding, the whole process will take no more than
five months from our closing date.

15

Non-priority areas
We have limited funding available to distribute and we therefore cannot fund some
very good work. Below are some areas of work we will not support or are unlikely
to support.

We will not support applications

Which do not benefit Londoners.
That directly replace or subsidise statutory funding (including contracts), or
is the primary responsibility of statutory funders such as local and central
government and health authorities.
From individuals, or which are for the benefit of one individual.
From organisations which have fewer than three individuals on their governing
body e.g. trustee board/management committee. We would normally expect
more than three on the governing body.
For mainstream educational activity including schools.
For the promotion of religion.
From organisations seeking to distribute grants on our behalf.
For work that has already happened.
For general appeals.
For large capital appeals (including buildings and minibuses).
From applicants who have been rejected by us in the last 12 months.

We are unlikely to support applications

Where organisations have significant unrestricted reserves (including those that
are designated). Generally up to six months expenditure is acceptable.
Where organisations are in serious financial deficit.
From large national charities which enjoy widespread support.
For work that takes place in schools during school hours.

16 Trust for London Funding Guidelines 2016-17

Complaints
If you have any complaints about how we have handled your application, you
should in the first instance contact the member of staff who has been dealing with
your organisation. We will try to rectify any problem or misunderstanding.
If you are not satisfied you should write to our Chief Executive who is responsible
for the management of the Trust. If the complaint is regarding our Chief Executive,
you should write to the Chair of our Trustees. However, please note that you
cannot appeal any decision made by our Trustees about whether or not we fund
your organisation.
Any complaint you make will not jeopardise your funding application or any future
application to us.

Feedback
We welcome any feedback you may have about the application process or any
other aspect of our work. Please feel free to contact us at: info@trustforlondon.
org.uk or contact us on 020 7606 6145.

17

6 Middle Street
London
EC1A 7PH
t 020 7606 6145
e info@trustforlondon.org.uk
www.trustforlondon.org.uk
www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk
Charity Registration Number: 205629